No sooner had Minardi
Formula One boss for the past five years, Paul Stoddart, confirmed a deal to sell the Italian-based Formula One perennial tail-enders to drinks giant
Red Bull than the Australia is splashing some cash in the direction of the Australian V8 Supercar Series as he backs the Ford Performance Racing Ford Credit Falcon with his new OzJet airline.
Crash.net Radio's Andy Stobart spoke to Paul as he visited the V8 squad at the Surfers Paradise.
"I thought I'd just come down and see how the rest of the world operates having been closeted in F1 for the last ten years," quipped Paul stood in the, correctly sized this year, V8 Supercar Series pitlane for the Gillette V8 Supercar eleventh round of the championship.
"We're supporting the FPR team this weekend and we're proudly sponsoring with the Ozjet logo so I thought I'd better come down and have a bit of a wander around," said Stoddart on a wet Thursday at the Queensland Gold Coast destination, the heavens dropping their load on the two days prior to the weekend to ensure baking sunshine and blue skies for the race action and record crowd turnout.
For Stoddart operating his Formula One team on a relative shoestring the role of going from seeking sponsorship to making the decision to be a sponsor must have been a bit of a turn-around. Not least when the team you're sponsoring is predominantly owned by a man who used to be involved with one of your F1 rivals, namely David Richards at Prodrive who own 51% of Ford Performance Racing and used to have a considerable involvement in the running of BAR-Honda.
"David Richards and I always had a great relationship and a lot of respect for each other and it's a pleasure to be involved," explains Stoddart.
It came as a bit of a surprise for some as the pre-Bathurst announcement was made of Stoddart backing a works squad such as FPR, but for the Melbourne-based Ford squad it was all about who you know, as FPR main man these days, Tim Edwards, knows Stoddart well from his time in
F1.
